And the Oscar for "Best Performance by a Defeated Candidate who Refuses to Admit Defeat" goes to....Hillary "I am a fighter" Clinton!

A steep descent brings Clinton's plane to Charleston's hilltop airport. After an appropriate wait, she steps from the plane and pretends to wave to a crowd of supporters; in fact, she is waving to 10 photographers underneath the airplane's wing. She pretends to spot an old friend in the crowd, points and gives another wave; in fact, she is waving at an aide she had been talking with on the plane minutes earlier.

The announcer has just introduced "the next president of the United States." And with the TV now turned off, it almost seems possible. The confetti guns are loaded and ready. The streamers hang from the ceiling. And the crowd -- now up to 500, all but about 10 of them white -- is rapturous as Clinton rebukes the "pundits and the naysayers."

"There are some who wanted to cut this race short!" Clinton says from the faux-wood lectern. They boo.

"I am more determined than ever to carry on this campaign," she says. They cheer.

"There are many who wanted to declare a nominee before the ballots were counted or even cast," she says. They boo.

"This race isn't over yet," she says. They cheer.

The sound system emits a loud screech of feedback. The confetti cannons fire.

All politicians use a certain amount of showmanship and performance during their campaigns, but I think the smoke and mirrors that Clinton is using makes her campaign more an act of prestidigitation rather then a serious political movement.

Despite her victory in West Virginia (Aren't they still using those touch screen voting machines?), the facts are that Hillary cannot overcome Obama's lead, she is over twenty million dollars in debt, and she is damaging the party that her husband spent eight years rebuilding.

And it is all for naught.

It is time for Hillary to pack up the big tent, load up the elephants, pay off the lion tamers, and send her circus packing. It is time to get serious. We have a country to rescue.